Jeremy Renner is days away from returning to production on Season 3 of Mayor Of Kingstown, one year after a snowplow accident that nearly claimed his life.
In an interview with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen on CNN’s New Year’s Eve special Sunday night, Renner told the co-hosts, “I think I’m ready, I think I’m strong enough. We’ll see…. I literally go back in a week. But I’ll be doing my best, trying my hardest.”
The interview came on the eve of the January 1 release of the first single off his new album Love and Titanium. The songs on the album are inspired by Renner’s recovery.
When asked by Cooper how he managed to get through his “unbelievable battle with his year-long recovery, Renner said, “I’m just so blessed that I have so many things to live for, brother. I have a giant family, I have a 10-year-old daughter, [and] I would’ve disappointed and really messed up a lot of people’s lives if I would’ve passed, and so there’s a lot for me to get better for.”
Adding that is he is “pretty stubborn S.O.B., Renner explained, “There was a lot for me to fight for, and recovery was just a one-way road in my mind. My recovery became relief for me, because I knew I could give relief to my family, my daughter and all those that I really affected. And my poor nephew, who was there with me on that day, I gave him images that he can never unsee, but I know that my healing would be healing for him.”
“With that,” he continued, “I’d never thought about my own physical ailments, my own pain, or my own anguish. I had so many things to fight for, so the one-way road of recovery was my mental, sort of, attitude, and that attitude was always to get better. There’s no option other than that. And I still work at every part, every day, and thank God that I have a lot to fight for.”
Renner was was critically injured in the January 1 snowplow accident in which he broke more than 30 bones. The accident took place while Renner was plowing snow in the driveway of his Lake Tahoe home on New Year’s Day 2023. He had been trying to stop the snow-removal tractor from sliding and hitting his nephew when he was pulled under and crushed. The Hawkeye actor was airlifted to a hospital where he was treated for “blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries.” He recently revisited the Reno hospital to thank the staff for taking care of him in the first days after the accident.
Renner stars as Mike McLusky, a power broker in a fictional Michigan town in Mayor of Kingstown. The show centers around his family as they deal with corruption and inequality in the city.
The series, which airs on Paramount+, was renewed for its third season in May.
Watch the interview above.